Cable in conduit (CIC) geometries are currently used to fabricate superconducting cables. Quenching is a problem in superconducting cables. Quenching is an abnormal termination of magnet operation that occurs when part of the superconducting cable enters a resistive state. The part of the superconducting cable in which the quench occurs undergoes rapid Joule heating, causing regions of the superconducting cable surrounding the quench to enter a resistive state. This causes additional Joule heating, leading to a chain reaction, in which increasingly large sections of the superconducting cable enter a resistive state. Existing techniques are not able to externally induce a distributed quench in a CIC conductor and instead either add a substantial amount of stabilizing copper within the CIC conductor or limit the overall performance to avoid the potential for a quench to damage the windings.